Evangelism

03/19/2018

Rampant cynicism, ignorance, and skepticism has made our task [of evangelism] more difficult, but that does not mean it has become impossible. Believers who can communicate the basis for their faith can be far more convincing and make a far greater impression with their personal testimony. If we are unable to answer unbelievers’ questions about Christianity, however, we leave ourselves open to the charge of being uncritical and not caring to examine our faith. Paul, in fact, advised the Thessalonians to “prove all things” (1 Thess. 5:21). The Bible does not encourage a blind faith.— James Patrick Holding (from, When Apologetics Was Evangelism)

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

When Apologetics Was Evangelism

By James Patrick Holding

The next time you have an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ, think about this: There is no example in the New Testament of a “personal testimony” being used in an evangelistic setting. Does that seem surprising? The personal testimony has become such an integral part of evangelistic training that it is assumed to be explicitly described, even mandated, in the Bible; but it isn’t.

What about Paul’s testimony to the Philippians about his former life as a Pharisee who persecuted Christians, of which he said, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung” (Phil. 3:8)?1 This is indeed a personal testimony about how Jesus changed Paul’s life, but it is found in a letter to fellow Christians, in which Paul compared himself to the “evil workers” (Phil. 3:2) who were opposing him. Paul was not witnessing to his faith as an evangelist but was illustrating for vulnerable believers the contrast between himself and those who were preaching false doctrine.

What we call “apologetics” was, in fact, what the apostolic church would have called “evangelism.” Early missionary preaching testified to the historical realities upon which the Christian faith was grounded and called for repentance on those grounds. Consider Peter’s speech to the crowd in Jerusalem at Pentecost…

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

03/14/2018

How to respond more effectively when someone questions your faith

by Matthew Ruttan

“You don’t actually believe in God, do you?” “Why would you read the Bible?” “Why in the world do you go to church?”

Have you ever been asked any of those questions?

Last year I did an online survey of topics. More people wanted to know about how to respond more effectively when someone questions their faith, than they did to other huge questions like “Why would a loving God send people to hell?” or even “Why do bad things sometimes happen to good people?”

That tells me that many of you often feel overwhelmed or unprepared to respond effectively when someone questions your faith.

But it doesn’t need to be that way.

On March 11 at Westminster, I offered some help by looking at 1 Peter 3:15-16. We explored five biblical steps to help you respond to questions about what you believe.

If you take these seriously, I think you’ll feel more confident and more prepared when questions come up.

Here’s the main Bible passage:

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” -1 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV)

When Peter wrote those words in the years after Jesus’ resurrection, he was speaking to Christians who were often feeling persecuted or marginalized because of their faith.

Because Christians were extremely loyal to the one true God of the Bible (and wouldn’t worship other gods or the Emperor like many other people did), and because of their commitment to the teachings of Scripture, and their adherence to a powerful ethical code of love, truth and serving others in and through their faith communities (which they called churches), they were often considered radicals or subversives. As a result they felt different, and were sometimes excluded from their families and some employment opportunities. Sometimes they faced physical harm as well.

So Peter wrote to encourage them—not only so they had renewed strength in the face of their critics, but so that they would feel better prepared to give a reason for their faith when asked.

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

03/13/2018

Apologetics as a Martial Art?

by Clark Bates

When I was a teenager I used to study martial arts. A long tradition of self-defense training ran in my family. My parents are both black belts in the martial art known as Tang Soo Do and actually first met in a martial arts class that my dad was instructing. Through the years I’ve studied many different styles but none were so impactful to me, or as effective for me, then the martial art known as Aikido. If you’ve ever seen a Steven Seagal movie, you’ve seen Aikido. While it’s portrayed in film as a very violent martial art, it is, in fact, very fluid. Where Aikido finds its effectiveness is in the irimi tenkan motions, which take the momentum of the opponent and use it against them. Being that I am now, and always was, smaller than average this was very useful. I’ve always loved Aikido and consider my time studying it to be the most formative of my youth.

An apologetics discussion, if done right, should be like Aikido wherein we use the momentum of the other person. Unfortunately, for many, it becomes more like power lifting. In power lifting, the object is to lift the most weight possible, no matter the strain it places on your body. When engaging with a non-Christian, the common approach is to hear an objection and immediately file through our mental catalog of memorized responses and immediately go on the offense. The problem with this approach is that it turns the engagement into a power lifting competition. You, the apologist, are doing all the heavy lifting, and you’re causing unnecessary strain on yourself.

Never Make a Statement When a Question Will Suffice

Apologist Greg Koukl very astutely recognizes and teaches that any conversation with a non-Christian should involve a lot of questions. One of the simplest being, “What do you mean by that?” or “How do you come to that conclusion?”[1] The reason this is a better approach than the power lifting is two-fold…

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

3 Reasons to Give up Apologetics

by Roger Browning

I was researching opinions on the difference between apologetics and evangelism when I came across a website that explained it like this:

APOLOGETICS USUALLY REQUIRES SOME LEVEL OF INTELLECTUAL SOPHISTICATION.[I]

While I certainly believe intelligence and Christianity are complimentary,[ii] the idea that apologetics is for the intellectual is problematic when looking at 1 Pet 3:15: “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you”. If apologetics is something all Christians should be prepared for then maybe ‘apologetics’ isn’t the only way.

Apologetics is Complicated

The first time I approached a church about teaching apologetics, I received an all too common response from the pastor: “We teach the Bible, we don’t need that.” As I listened to his sermon, I couldn’t help but see the irony in his appeals to missionary work. He said, “They will know you by your fruits”, a clear message from Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount. So the pastor wanted his congregation to go out and win hearts and minds for Christ… without providing any reasons!? Apologetics is clearly a piece of the endeavor but putting the term ‘apologetics’ on the mission appears to complicate the ask.

Most of us are already prepared to give a reason by simply sharing our testimony. Labeling it ‘apologetics’ only complicates evangelism…

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

03/08/2018

The Necessity of Apologetics

by Jason Burnett

For several years now, our church has taken a trip to the Passion conference in Atlanta, GA. I always look forward to going. I enjoy the teaching, the worship, and having the opportunity to pour into the lives of our high school seniors and college students. In 2016, I was excited to hear that Ravi Zacharias was going to be a speaker. Dr. Zacharias’ ministry has made a major impact on my life and has shaped the way I think about apologetics.

It doesn’t seem that I am alone, for when his name comes up in conversation with other pastors it is common to hear their appreciation of his ministry. The same was true the day he spoke at Passion. While Passion has many great teachers and speakers, something happened when Dr. Zacharias took the stage that I have never seen before, the whole place stood in ovation. Over 15,000 students and adults stood to their feet to show their appreciation of the one best apologists of this day and age. Why? Why would they honor such a man? Surely it is because of his apologetics ministry, and the fact that his ministry, and thus apologetics, is impacting the lives of many.

Always Be Ready

1 Peter 3:15 commands the church, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” In this verse, Peter commands Christians who are suffering to be ready to give answers when the questions come and he points us in the direction of how to do it.

But it seems that many middle school and high school believers are not ready to give answers when the questions come.

As a result, there are at least three things that are likely to happen…

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

03/06/2018

What does it mean to say Christianity is true?

by Eric Chabot

A common approach in apologetic discussions is to ask someone what would convince them Christianity is true. And if it is true, would you believe it? After all, we rely on truth every day of our lives. We want our banks, our employers, government, friends, and family to be truthful with us. And why would you want to believe something that is false? But the more I have thought about this question, I think it leads to some very important questions.

Truth

1. First of all, when you say the word ‘true’ or ‘truth’ you have to define what you mean! Whatever determines a test for truth determines one’s apologetic approach. It is quite common for the Christian or Christian apologist to defend the correspondence theory of truth. Thus, truth is what corresponds to reality. As Norman Geisler says:

“Truth is what corresponds to its referent. Truth about reality is what corresponds to the way things really are. Truth is “telling it like it is.” This correspondence applies to abstract realities as well as actual ones. There are mathematical truths. There are also truths about ideas. In each case there is a reality, and truth accurately expresses it. Falsehood, then is what does not correspond. It tells it like it is not, misrepresenting the way things are.”–Baker’s Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, pgs,741-745.

Now here is the challenge: Many people aren’t asking whether Christianity corresponds to reality. Instead, they are asking if it is true because of the pragmatic benefits they see in people’s lives. This is a very popular approach. In this argument, many people say their religious beliefs have been tried and tested out in the reality of life. In other words, “Christianity works because it is true!”

This does have some merit. After all, if the Christian faith is the one true path, it should make a radical difference in the reality of life. The challenge of this argument is that in some cases, it seems Christianity doesn’t work. Christians have challenges in their families, work related issues and relationships. However, just because Christians don’t always reflect the character of Jesus and don’t always show the difference it makes, this doesn’t mean Christianity is false. It could be that the person is not under healthy teaching/discipleship or living in sin. So the pragmatic argument can be a tricky one. Everyone knows Christians have done some amazing things for the world (see here), but we also have some inconsistencies.

When we are challenging people on whether Christianity is true, sometimes the goal is to break them out of all other tests for truth (especially the pragmatic one) and get them to ask whether Christianity corresponds to reality? So our attempt to get people out of a post modern view of truth is quite challenging…

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

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For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 2 Peter 1:16